Tag Archives: will hoge

Eli Young Band at the 45th annual CMA Awards (photo: George Walker IV/The Tennessean)

Eli Young Band is celebrating the success of its current single, “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” which just went gold for sales exceeding 500,000 copies. Originally recorded by Will Hoge, it is the fastest-rising song of the band’s career.

“I think ‘Crazy Girl’ was a blessing for us and really set things up in a huge way for ‘Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” Eli says.

“In some ways, (the new single) is an even more important song to us, because it tells the story of our band, and people are understanding that we’ve been doing this for a long time and we really went out there and tried to sacrifice everything we could to make our dreams happen.”

“I was so heartbroken that I would be in the shower and my hair would fall out at my feet. I lost so much weight because I was so messed up over this one girl. ... It was classic country and western style, like, ‘It’s not working out? Let’s ask her to marry me. That’ll fix all the problems,’” the singer recalls.

Bentley channeled that grief into his self-titled debut album in 2003. Nine years later he’s set to release Home, his sixth studio album, on Feb. 7, and it’s filled with a different kind of longing — one for his family, wife Cassidy and daughters Evie, 3, and Jordan, 1.

“I’ve really never known heartache like this before, with a child,” Bentley says. “You never realize how painful it is to love someone until you have a kid and it just hurts in the best possible ways and in the worst possible ways that no heartache could ever, ever measure up to.”

The singer spends about 200 days a year away from home and “his girls” because, he says, he still has much to prove as a singer and a songwriter. Bentley describes this period of his life as “sleeves rolled up higher than they’ve ever been, calluses on my hands, working harder than I ever have,” but says that even when he’s playing a packed venue thousands of miles away, he’s always missing his family, which he says is “a big part of this record.”

“Now that the curtain’s been raised on that emotion and you can see what life is all about, it amplifies everything you do,” says the singer, who is set to play Ryman Auditorium on Thursday. “The songs you play, the songs you write, (that emotion) affects your soul in a weird way. Every moment away from my house has to be huge.”

Nashville country-rocker Will Hoge made his late-night TV debut on Jan. 10, performing two songs on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! Hoge played "Too Old To Die Young" and "Fool's Gonna Fly" from his 2011 album Number Seven. Watch the first song above and the second song after the jump.Continue reading →

Bentley's Nashville concert comes just days before he releases his sixth studio album, HOME, on February 7. He'll perform the title track this Thursday on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (11:35 p.m. Central, NBC).

Tickets for Bentley's Ryman concert are $35 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Fri., November 18 via Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com, the Ryman box office, ryman.com and by phone.

Getting a turn on the Grand Ole Opry stage, playing with Vince Gill on your new album, having your new music video enter rotation on CMT — they’d be sweet feats for any musician, but it’s even sweeter for Nashville independent rock/soul vet Will Hoge, who got to this point in his career on his own terms.

“I feel like Nashville has opened its arms even more to me,” he says. “And I certainly hope that I’ve opened my arms even more to it.”

It’s appropriate that all this good fortune comes Hoge’s way as he’s just released his seventh album, Number Seven — his second since a serious motor scooter accident in 2008 took him off the stage for nearly a year. Since then, Hoge has adopted a slightly slower pace from his days of playing up to 250 shows in a year, and recording in a rush. The time at home with his wife and kids has paid off in more ways than one.

“Somewhere between country and rock is where we live, and I think that this record encompasses that better than anything that we’ve done before,” he says.

Hoge and his band were free when the Opry came calling in August (he calls the experience, which Gill also joined him for, “one of the coolest, if not the coolest, musical moment for me thus far”). He wrote one of Seven’s standout songs, “When I Get My Wings,” after reading in The Tennessean about a local man who had lost his wife after 57 years of marriage.

Los Lonely Boys, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Brett Dennen and Edwin McCain are among the artists set to perform at the third annual 'Live on the Green' free concert series, taking place at Nashville's Public Square Park on Thursday nights from September 8 through October 13.

The series kicks off on September 8 with a performance from the Nashville Symphony - who will share the stage with local rock/pop savant K.S. Rhoads - as well as a set from Nashville roots-rock mainstay Will Hoge.

Attendees can also look forward to non-musical treats from the concert series, which is produced by Tuned In Broadcasting in partnership with the Nashville Mayor’s Office. Additions include an expanded food court and a dedicated area for dogs from Happy Tales Humane. LOTG will also continue to practice carbon-offset efforts (providing recycling; using environmentally friendly materials; encouraging alternate modes of transportation, using energy-efficient lighting and sound and more) and promote green initiatives.

The saying about live music shows in Nashville goes, “You never know who might show up” and that certainly rings true for "The Whiskey Jam," a weekly jam session for local artists each Monday night at Winners on Division Street in Midtown.

"I’m working on a new country record and I wanted to do something that could associate me a little more with the Nashville community. So we thought it would be cool to just play some songs and invite our friends to sit in and jam. Sometimes we know who is coming, but sometimes we don’t."

Hoge also hinted that he has several big artists lined up for the coming weeks, although he wouldn’t reveal any names. Much like MuzikMafia - a successful Tuesday night weekly event that ran for a year and half - the Whiskey Jam provides the perfect opportunity for artists to pop in and play on a whim.

And as for how long Hoge will keep the event running, he said, “We’re just going to keep doing it until people stop coming.”

The Whiskey Jam is a free event that takes place every Monday from 8p.m. to 11p.m. at Winners (1930 Division Street).

Click to see a gallery of photos from various music cruises, including Cayamo and Kid Rock's Chillin' the Most cruise (this image of Kid on his cruise in 2010: Will Byington).

On Friday, Jan. 21, Taylor Swift will take the stage for another sold-out concert, this time in Mexico. As usual, her fans will be screaming, and Swift will almost definitely treat them to hits such as “Love Story” and “Back to December.” But this time, after the show, fans won’t have to worry about traffic headaches, though some might find themselves a little seasick. After all, they’ll be on water.

The show, aboard Royal Caribbean’s new Allure of the Seas, will take place while it’s docked in the city of Cozumel. Many other cruise concerts, however, are nonstop, multi-day celebrations for all passengers.

Whether it’s just playing on a docked ship, or performing — and then vacationing — among fans who are out to sea, Swift and a long list of other musicians are taking to music-themed cruises, a growing wave in travel and entertainment choices that features artists emphatically rocking the boat. Acts who have played these venues over the years include John Mayer, Zac Brown Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

And Nashville is playing a leading role. At the helm of many of these cruises is Sixthman, an Atlanta-based music cruise company founded by Nashville native Andy Levine. The company first sailed into uncharted territory with a rock-themed cruise in 2001, and it wrapped up the decade with 27 cruises, 10 in the past year alone. Throughout that time, the cruises have been packed with big Nashville names, including Kid Rock, Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller, as well as a handful of rising independent local artists. The cruise Cayamo, like most of Sixthman’s excursions, will take its passengers from south Florida through scenic spots of the Caribbean.

“We’re trying to be the best in the world at bringing like-minded people together on vacation,” Levine says.Continue reading →

Phil Vassar’s New Year’s resolution is a simple one: “Work less, play more.”

The country star rolls into 2011 working and playing Friday, as the headliner of the “New Year’s Eve Bash on Broadway” concert in Downtown Nashville.

“It’s just good to be home,” he says. “We were in Las Vegas last New Year’s. It seems like we’re always somewhere else, so it’s really nice to be here over the holidays. My family’s all down from Virginia, so it’s really exciting for us.”

On New Year’s Eve, Vassar’s “home” isn’t just Nashville — it’s being onstage.

“That’s what we do,” he says. “I think I’ve had one New Year’s off that I can remember. It’s always fun to watch the madness from the stage. Plus, it’s a great weekend for Nashville, with the Music City Bowl and shows. I’ve been in Nashville a long time, and it’s just awesome to see this all going on.”

The Bash on Broadway starts at 7:00 p.m. at Broadway between First and Fourth avenues. Vassar will be joined by fellow performers Heidi Newfield, Will Hoge and Damien Horne. The evening will be hosted by GAC and Sirius XM personality Storme Warren. Admission is free.

Update: According to a rep from the CVB, the event will now begin at 7 p.m.